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Key dates over June 1916

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Lives lost on this day: 3

30th June 1916 - Heat and sickness affects 9th Bn Worcestershire Reg

Rolling Casualty Count: 3306

At the Front:

2nd Batt: Artillery bombardment carried out on different parts of the German lines with little retaliation. Small German mine was blown between RWF`s crater and the German line. A few miners were gassed.

3rd Batt: Batt marched to Varennes.

4th Batt: Handing in of packs etc and getting ready to proceed to the trenches in the evening. Batt left Louvencourt at 7.00pm to go to forming up area in the trenches There was a halt at Acheux Wood for hot tea and rum. Batt left Wood at 11.00pm and arrived in the trenches at 3.30am. Bombardment from both sides very heavy

9th Batt: heat and sickness has thinned out the ranks and strength was less than 300 men. A few drafts came but these were barely sufficient.

10th Batt: Batt moved to preliminary assembly trenches approx. 700 strong in all ranks-17 officers and a proportion of NCOs. One will remain with 1st line to replace casualties.

11th Batt: it was arranged that 5 British Divisions should take over the front covering Salonika and the 11th in some of them.

On the Home Front:

Kossovo Day in Worcester – Organ Recital at the Cathedral - Kossovo Day which the Serbians in singular manner hold to celebrate their defeat in the Battle of Kossovo in 1389 was marked in Worcester on Wednesday by an organ recital at the Cathedral which a large number of citizens attended. The programme contained music well suited to the purpose of the festival; it suggested the atmosphere of resignation and fortitude in national suffering and of confident hope in the future. The Choir first sang the stirring Serbian National Anthem. Then one of the choristers sang very sweetly Handel’s ‘Angels ever light and fair’…Before the congregation joined in the singing of the hymn ‘Soldiers of Christ Arise’ Canon James gave a short explanation of the meaning of Kossovo Day. He sketched briefly the history of the Serbians from the date of the Battle of Kossovo down to the present time, as a preface to an urgent appeal for a liberal response to the collection on behalf of the Serbian Red Cross Fund. The Serbians in the present war, he said, had done splendidly and deserved our sympathy and help…The collection amounted to £12 18s

A meeting of the city council will be held on Tuesday next. A letter will be read from the Worcester Municipal Officers’ Association asking the Council to consider the desirability of granting War bonuses to all their officials whose salaries have not been increased since the outbreak of the war.

Information researched by the WWW100 team.